Re-Impact Table Tennis Blades

Introducing Re-Impact

Re-Impact (aka Rendler) is a specialist table tennis blade designer and manufacturer based in Germany.

The brains and craftsmen behind the company are brothers Achim and Eugen Rendler (Eugen unfortunately passed away in 2009) who’s expertise is well known in Germany, and by other manufacturers.

This site attempts to explain some of the unique (and patented) technologies used in the Re-Impact blades, as well as provide an overview of all their blades, as well their suitability to certain styles, and the recommended rubbers.

The Re-Impact Technology section provides a comprehensive description of the technology and inventions that are a key part of all Re-Impact blades.

The Blade Comparison section provides an overview of the different types of Re-Impact blades, and a detailed table that categorises them according to suitable styles, as well as blade ratings and suitable rubber suggestions.

The Blades section provides details on every specific Re-Impact blade, the style they’re most suitable for, the best choice of rubbers, and close-up pictures of the blade.

The FAQs page provides a growing list of the questions commonly asked about the Re-Impact blades, as well as detailed answers.

The About Us page lists the authors and sites that have contributed to this information website.

Ever since the introduction of the 40 mm celluloid ball in 2004, table tennis has suffered greatly. It is caused by having officials who do not play table tennis themselves but nonetheless decide about important matters, harming us. Now this new ball is introduced, for better TV rights. It requires adaptation in movement and technique, but German and ITTF officials still have not understood that the basic position of the player, standing sideways (left foot forward for right-handed players) has now become incorrect. Coaches are being educated as if the 38mm ball was still in use. This problem affects players visibly.

Players have to be told that their balancing-hand (left hand for right-handed players) has to be held high, like in the days of the 38mm ball, between hip and shoulder, away from the body. Only this will allow having a fundamental tension in the back while standing in the basic (forward facing) position, which is needed to increase safety in the forehand, as the playing arm has to be low in tension.

Besides, playing with the 40mm ball while having a basic position standing sideways will result in contacting the ball at a point which makes it impossible to exert sufficiently a forward force. This means that players instead of playing topspin with accuracy and power, will only be able to drive (as they lack the power to add spin).

As a result, many players who used to play successfully with forehand and backhand, have lost accuracy and power on both sides and have tried to compensate for this loss by using long pimpled rubbers or antispin rubbers to minimize the effect of incoming spin, which, due to the loss of accuracy and power, has become harder for them to control.

As these compensating rubbers are most often used on the backhand side, players tend to shift their basic position to favour the backhand, and this harms accuracy and power in the forehand even more.

My blade concept, however, being asymmetrical, allows contacting the ball effectively while standing face forward. Hitting straight forward is effective, as the blade will automatically close when it is moved forward; you do not have to turn the blade yourself, opening or closing it. But to make this work, the balancing-hand has to be held high like in the 38mm days, instead of held low and close to body.

This is the way to regain accuracy and power in the forehand, as it automatically builds the necessary basic tension in the muscles of the back. World scoop with Re-Impact!

The Rapier 44 with its classic design is not only a blade for pimpled rubbers on the backhand, but an all-round effective blade – with pimpled rubbers or reversed rubbers alike, it is capable of taking the speed out of a rally when it is used rather closed and passively (without being completely passive, just holding out the bat), for this will “smother” the balsa core, as air will no longer circulate in it. But as soon as the blade is held slightly more open, the core is automatically reactivated and will take in air again. This allows, on both sides, for a totally simple and secure execution of blocks, as well as chops in classic defence that will make the opponent desperate on account of their accuracy.

The Rapier 44 has been designed for the 40+ ball and, due to its soft balsa core, is to be used with rather hard-sponged rubbers if a player likes low-spin smashing. But if you prefer spin-variation and spinny smashing, you may use rubbers as soft as you like. When pimpled rubbers are used on one side, however, the sponge of the rubber on the other side has to be harder in order to achieve an excellent spin-reversal.

I would advise you, therefore, to please order only the Rapier 44 while waiting for the new Turbo and Preference blades, that are world scoops as well and of course perfectly designed for the 40+ ball.

The Turbo is an exceptional combination blade, having an active forehand and classic backhand. The forehand is very crisp, speed wise, but the backhand extremely slow. You may play this blade also the other way round, as it will mirror the Tachi that way (but adapted to the new ball). This means that every player will be able to choose his forehand technique, by twiddling. Playing it left-handed or right-handed will determine on which side the pimpled rubber must be. Both sides, however, allow for an enormous spin-reversal.

The new Preference is the OFF blade for all offensive techniques. It excels in looping to loops or killing incoming topspin, which it makes childishly simple. It is also very accurate. In contrast to the Rapier44, it can be played close to the table and away from it, with both sides, as it will loop descending balls as well as ascending balls, producing the highest possible spin. The Preference also regulates the speed on both sides when used passively, but it will not get below speed value 6. This way you will still be able to block safely, and play effective stop-blocks that the opponent will be unable to reach.

An article by Achim Rendler, owner and designer of Re-Impact blades, about the use of Re-Impact blades with the new Plastic 40+ balls.

The advantages of Re Impact blades for the 40+ ball

The properties of the 40+ ball lead to changes in the game, as could be seen in e.g. the European Games in Baku. Mainly the four following (interacting) properties change the game and make it more complex than before.

1: the new ball is slightly slower, basically allowing players more time for their returns; as a consequence, even professionals will seldom win the point by speed alone any more. Speed as, since the 1980s, the #1 factor for winning the point, has become less important than placement and spin. Some players have decided to adapt to this by changing to even faster equipment, but faster blades and rubbers now cause new problems in the new close to the table game with the 40+ ball.

2: it is also slightly harder to load the new ball with spin; with conventional blades one needs a longer arm movement and more power for it. But faster blades or rubbers do not avail here – only blades that are capable to produce topspin with a shorter movement. Especially close to the table it is now harder to make quickly topspin, for even if the new ball is slightly slower than the old one, rallies are still too quick to allow the longer arm movement that is now required. This is why in Baku, much more often than before, many players returned fast loops by blocking the ball when playing close to the table. Here, faster blades and rubbers in particular are disadvantageous, for they make it much harder to get the balls on the table. As an alternative, players will play away from the table to be able to play loop to loop rallies. Loop to loop rallies away from the table are easier (but of course for both players) and continue for longer than before, because the new ball bounces higher. Thus, the ability to control the ball now decides who will win the point in these rallies and the player with the fastest blade (and therefore the lowest control) will seldom have the advantage any more.

3: the new ball also retains its rotation longer. This makes blocking spinny balls close to the table much harder, but play with heavy topspin and backspin away from the table easier and more effective than before. In Baku, the problems even professional players now have with blocking strong topspin were obvious! Blocking, hitherto considered a simple and harmless return, as become clearly more important with the new ball. Also, making mistakes against defenders has become more frequent.

4: the new ball has a slower bounce; it comes slower off the table towards the player who has to return it and generally bounces higher, as has been remarked already. This means over the table play has become more important.

Top players like Vladimir Samsonov have decided they would not use a faster blade for the new ball, but actually a slower one, with better control. And in Baku it could be seen that technically gifted all-round players, like the members of the French men’s team, who do not centre their game around speed, but around spin-variation and placement, now are much more successful than before. But even these players are frequently forced to back away from the table.

In contrast to conventional blades, however, the properties of Re Impact blades enable play close to the table, and especially with the new ball even more successful than before. Because of this fact they are an interesting alternative for players who, even with the 40+ ball, do not want (or are unable) to play away from the table.

1: Re Impact blades are easier to make speed with than conventional blades and with the slower ball this is an important advantage close to and over the table, for it enables a player to still win the point with speed alone. But, also in decisive contrast with conventional blades, this does not mean that blocking becomes much more difficult and risky with fast and spinny balls with them, for Re Impact blades are at the same time capable of effectively taking the speed off the ball. They dampen well and accelerate well! This combination of acceleration and dampening is of much more importance with the 40+ ball.

2: with many Re Impact blades it is also easier to produce spin; this allows re-looping loops at the table. Especially with Re Impact active blades one makes more spin with a shorter arm movement, according to the modern table tennis lore, where conventional blades require a longer arm movement. This is also an important advantage with the new ball for players who want or have to play close to the table.

3: Re Impact blades block much better than conventional blades – they not only control the speed better (as was mentioned above) but they are also much less sensitive to incoming spin. An effective blocking game is, therefore, in fact much easier with Re Impact blades than with conventional ones.

4: Re Impact blades are much more light-weight and have accordingly better aerodynamic properties than conventional blades. With them one is able to get easier and more accurately to the new ball, close to and over the able, even when the ball will suddenly “hold up”.

Re Impact blades, then, and especially the active models, offer only advantages over conventional blades and with the new 40+ ball these advantages are even more important than before, as for the 4 essentially new properties of the 40+ ball that change the game fundamentally, Re Impact blades possess playing parameters that effectively fit those new properties, in contrast to conventional blades. This of course also means that Re Impact active blades offer less advantages when played away from the table, where conventional blades generally work better. But there are already models, like Smart and Rapier 44, with a classic design (e.g. with Mahogany for outer plies) that enable the impact of the ball to “spread” over a much larger part of the blade’s head surface and accordingly make the Balsa core vibrate less. Active blades for effective play away from the table must, in contrast, have more weight, enough to transfer by their mass sufficient energy to the ball. But it is my personal opinion that the strength of the Re Impact active blades, built for modern table tennis, is rather play close to the table, offering with the 40 + ball better support for modern table tennis than ever before.

After a lot testing of Re-Impact blades, OOAK Forum member Kees and myself got convinced someone should write a comprehensive guide on how to select the appropriate Re-Impact blade to suit a specific style, and how to best make use of the blade chosen as well.

It should be completely objective, intended to be to the benefit of the players, not builders or sellers.

Note: This is not a promotional article for Re-Impact. It’s a guide written by a user and for other users, and should be highly beneficial for those that already use a Re-Impact blade, or for those considering buying one.

Re-impact has announced 3 new developments in their blades, all based on the latest Dream blade technology, namely the Smart, the Swift series, and Dr Barath 224. These are already available via special order direct from Re-impact (Germany) or from OOAK Shop (Australia).

From Achim (owner or Re-impact):

The development of the new blades has been completed and they likely will be released online in June 2013 at http://www.re-impact.de, but these blades can also be ordered as a special model of the existing Dream (indicating the requested special type in the order) as these new blades are, until their official release, available at the introduction price of the Dream. Upon their release the basic price of these blades will probably be raised by around 30 euros, as building them is very time-consuming. You can also order at Luna & Alex (OOAK Shop Australia). Delivery time (building and postal delivery) to Australia is about 6 weeks at the moment (postal delivery alone sometimes has been 1 month recently)…

2. Swift => suits dynamic as well as conventional styles, for players who have mastered both and demand a catapult on the FH side they can adjust at will, combined with a BH with low catapult and slow speed. Swift is available in:

These new Dream combination blades automatically control the speed on the backhand side when used for chopping and blocking. With other types of ball-contact the Smart has a general speed of at least T=7+, Swift 24 at least T=7, Swift 3 at least T=9, Swift 6 at least T=8+ and Barath 224 at least T=7+. Additionally, the Barath can be played in reverse (=twiddled), which makes it a 422 blade [note: the numbers 2 and 4 indicate plies. K.] with a much faster 2nd level of play. Ball-control is even with control=20 still amazingly good. Serving you should use the 2nd level of play, as this more direct type of play enables placing the ball very short.

Special features

All Dream combi blades offer an excellent low throw (flat curve for the ball’s trajectory). They merely differ as to their respective catapult level. Dream and Smart are completely without catapult when used for chops and passive blocks. Smart reacts with catapult only in the FH, not in the BH. And Barath 224 or (reversed) 422 offer completely controlled catapult on both sides.